Mobile County school board tries to decide how to spend $100 million

POINT CLEAR, Alabama -- How do you spend $100 million on new schools and renovations when there are more than $400 million in needs?

That’s what members of the Mobile County school board are trying to decide, as they wrap up their two-day retreat today at the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club and Spa.

The board is poised to take out a new $100 million construction bond, which it would have to pay back to the tune of about $6 million a year for the next 30 years, officials said.

Board members had seemed to agree that it might be time to build a new high school in Citronelle, where the community has been putting pressure on school officials to renovate or rebuild several aging campuses.

But during a presentation Monday, some board members seemed surprised when Facilities Manager Tommy Sheffield revealed that doing so could cost as much as $33 million. Sheffield said most of the buildings, some dating back to the 1920s and some made of wood, would have to go. But some of the existing facility, including the cafeteria, could possibly be salvaged.

With several schools in dire shape, board members and Superintendent Martha Peek on Monday were even trying to come up with some creative solutions, such as combining Brazier Elementary and Chastang Middle, which are next to each other in Mobile’s Trinity Gardens, and building one new campus facing Interstate 65. That could be a flag-ship school, Sheffield said, as several other Alabama cities have constructed along the major thoroughfare, from Saraland up north to Montgomery and Birmingham. It would cost about $18 million or so.

Board members still don’t know what to do with the historic Barton Academy, which was built as Alabama’s first public school building in downtown Mobile in the 1830s, but has sat vacant now for about five years. Sheffield suggested that the board spend about $3 million to repair the outside of the building, which he said is at the point that it is “losing ground every day.”

“We’re going to reach a point where we can’t preserve it,” said board member Judy Stout.

Board members said they need to find a new home for the former Chickasaw School of Math and Science, which is in a temporary location in Chickasaw as that city has separated from the county school district. The school must move out within three years.

Phillips Preparatory School, a magnet school in midtown Mobile, might get some renovations, even though some board members said they are upset that the school has placed several large signs on the roadway encouraging supporters to contact the school system to ask for repairs.

And, as always, there’s the debate over whether growing schools should get new wings to eliminate portable classrooms, or aging schools with sub-par buildings should be rebuilt. Baker High in west Mobile just got a new 10-classroom wing last school year but already needs another one, which would cost about $2 million, Sheffield said.

Meanwhile, Mae Eanes Middle in Mobile’s Maysville community needs a new facility. But board member Bill Foster suggested it may need even more than that, maybe even move it or change its curriculum, to get over its reputation of being one of the worst-performing schools in Alabama.

“Has there been any thought about doing something else entirely there, and getting away from Mae Eanes and everything that is associated with that,” Foster said, ”so that people will no longer see that school as one that has failed year after year after year. We could change the whole image of the school, give it a new focus.”

There’s also a possibility that the board may build a new football stadium or athletic complex, but that could cost between $3 million and $5 million, and there might not be enough land in a centralized location to do so.

Board member Ken Megginson, who represents Citronelle, said building a high school there is his top priority because the students need a modern campus equipped with the technology and other tools to help prepare them for life after graduation.

Sheffield said he may have overestimated the price, but added that he’d rather do that than low-ball it, commit the money and then have the project cost more.

For comparison, the school system spent just under $20 million to build the new, bigger Blount High School in Prichard about seven years ago. Sheffield said prices have gone up, and that his estimate is based on giving Citronelle, which has just more than 800 students, everything Blount, which has about 1,800 students, has.

“I trust Tommy (Sheffield),” Megginson said. “The price will hopefully go down, but I think he’s probably got it at about the right price.”

The board will reconvene at 9 a.m. today to discuss career-technical education, technology and other issues, as well as evaluate Peek’s performance and set goals for the upcoming year. It plans to come up with a construction plan before dismissing in the afternoon.

Board members are paying for their own hotel rooms.

Besides the schools listed here, Sheffield said the following schools have the most “critical needs” for new facilities: Hankins Middle, Dauphin Island Elementary and Tanner Williams Elementary. Also, these schools need major renovations: Belsaw-Mt. Vernon, Orchard, Burroughs elementary schools and Dunbar Magnet School, a middle school in downtown Mobile.

And these schools need new roofs: LeFlore and Murphy high schools, Calloway-Smith Middle, Howard, Leinkauf, Dodge, Grant and Griggs elementary schools, and the central office complex.